Workers have begun dismantling the overhead in Barquisimeto, Venezuela where a showcase bus rapid transit trolleybus system has been abandoned after eight years of on/off uncertainty.
The cost of the failed project has been put at around US$360million (£287million). The future of 80 Bombardier-powered Neoplan/Viseon N6321 articulated trolleybuses supplied from 2008 is unknown. They have been parked outside at an air force base for several years and some are in poor condition, the Trolleymotion website reports.
Operator Transporte de Barquisimeto (Transbarca) had high hopes for the tworoute system, which was dogged by delays and wrangles. Only 25 of the Neoplans ever turned a wheel during a brief test phase in autumn 2012. Several were converted to diesel power but tests with these proved problematical.
Closure was made official in 2013 and 130 Chinese-made Yutong buses now ply the finished sections of the BRT route.
